I landed a job at doing financial research and market analysis for the largest independent film producer in the country. I will be basically be an in house analyst maintaing coverage on the firm and competing firms, the industry, along with market analysis to try measure the economic viablity of “greenlighting” film and television projects. It’s not IB or AM, but it is finance. I’m still going after the CFA. My goal is to use this job as a jumping off point for a lateral move into buyside/sellside research on entertainment companies or IB raising capital for similar firms. The firm is publically traded and very competitive. Many movies whose trailers you see right now are created at this firm. It should be very interesting. Upside: Experience and Industry contacts. The president and co-chair along with the rest of one of the finance groups are former bankers who were drawn to the industries sexyness. Downside: It’s not buyside/sellside research. Did I mention that damn every near single girl who works there is dime, their primarily young women who dreams of being stars didn’t materialize ,so the did the next best thing and got jobs working for studios. We also share a bulding with a major fashion magazine publishing company. There is models in and out of the building daily. What a great week I had my birthday last sunday, graduated this past wednesday and got a great job offer on this past thursday. Once again I beat the odds and weaseled my way into a firm where people said I couldn’t. I’m telling you folks networking and people skills is the key to getting breaks. Question: Do you think CFAI will allow financial anlysis of feature films to count as relevent work. I can’t ask them until tuesday, so I’m looking for feed back here until then.
Congrats! Are you going to be living in Santa Monica?
Good work! I would think that the work experience would be applicable…but it’s all about how you spin it. I’ve seen a few people with the exact same job at my firm apply for work experience and some got it and some didn’t based on how they described it. Just look through the CFA curriculum and see things that you will be doing and basically relate your job to the CFA curriculum and you should be fine. For instance, talk about how you use multiple regression analysis, valuation models for competing firms, top down industry analysis, etc. If you spend a little time on it, it should not be difficult to make yourself look like a CFA superstar. Good luck. DirtyZ
It looks fine to me - why would working for a company in the industry analyzing your competitors be different than working for a big bank analyzing the industry?
Thanks Joey and DirtyZ, I sincerely appreciate it. Joey, your a very clever guy. No, I will not be moving to Santa Monica, I’m going to stay in the Mid Wilshire/Miracle Mile or Fairfax areas. DirtyZ, I suppose the way you spin things will make a big difference. I just know CFAI is a fickle organization and may or may not look favorably upon the type of experience I will be getting. I’m hoping that I can frame things in a fashion that fits their criteria. Note to all: Excuse the gibberish in my initial post. I wrote it at 4:30 in the morning after a night of getting hammered. Not that you care, just figured I write a short disclaimer.
Gouman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks Joey and DirtyZ, I sincerely appreciate > it. > > Joey, your a very clever guy. No, I will not be > moving to Santa Monica, I’m going to stay in the > Mid Wilshire/Miracle Mile or Fairfax areas. > > DirtyZ, I suppose the way you spin things will > make a big difference. I just know CFAI is a > fickle organization and may or may not look > favorably upon the type of experience I will be > getting. I’m hoping that I can frame things in a > fashion that fits their criteria. > > Note to all: Excuse the gibberish in my initial > post. I wrote it at 4:30 in the morning after a > night of getting hammered. Not that you care, just > figured I write a short disclaimer. i got hammered too and some one stole my shoes, wtf? anyway congrats, that sounds like a really fun job and i wouldnt be too worried about the required cfa experience it seems like you have it in that position.
I used to live in Santa Monica. I loved it. It’s a great place. I was right across the street from the pier…
JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I used to live in Santa Monica. I loved it. It’s > a great place. I was right across the street from > the pier… Nice. I agree, Santa Monica is a breath of fresh air from the typical LA scene. Unfortunately it is ridiculously expensive these days, especially the are you used to live in. 550 square foot studios are running for approx 1200 per month. Well if your ever in town, shoot me a message, drinks are on me.
OC girls are more attractive (I live in OC so i MAY be biased). Santa Monica has some crazy street performers - like the dude who stands on his hands and whistles and beeps and the 5 year old girl that sings (but doesnt understand what she is singing). Mid Wilshire - Rodeo area?
reefkill Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > OC girls are more attractive (I live in OC so i > MAY be biased). > > Santa Monica has some crazy street performers - > like the dude who stands on his hands and whistles > and beeps and the 5 year old girl that sings (but > doesnt understand what she is singing). > > Mid Wilshire - Rodeo area? Mid Wilshire is between about Fairfax and Virgil. More or less depending on who you ask. I’d say LA and OC girls are neck and neck on looks. OC girls seem a little trashier and play harder to get, however, LA girls are faker, bitchier, materialistic and full of themselves by and large. Either way unless you find a diamond in the rough, pump’em and dump’em. If your going to consider marriage make sure you visit the Law offices of Trope and Trope first. They write expensive but teflon prenups.
reefkill Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > OC girls are more attractive (I live in OC so i > MAY be biased). > Here is another one of those places where statistics may be meaningless. Suppose that you hook up with Uma Thurmann when both of you are volunteering at the leper colony, does it really matter that the average attractiveness of women in the vicinity is very low? And if Gouman ends up with the only leper in Malibu what are we to make of it?
Sounds like a cool job, Gouman. Congrats and enjoy. Hey Joey- Sent you an email on your yahoo acct, if you have the time…Thanks
Maybe I should write a book about the irrelevance of statistics in the same spirit as Taleb’s The Black Swan. I could call it “The Only Leper In Malibu”. Catchy, huh?
lol. i was actually wondering if you were taleb in disguise after i read that post
do you mind sharing how you got the job? Im interested in the networking part
I live in LA so meeting people in “the industry” is an everyday occurrance. A friend tipped me off that there was a position available in the firm. I sent an email to HR. My resume is pretty good for an undergrad so I got a call back. At both interwviews I kicked ass. I read the entire 10k before going in their and knew more about the firm than the people interviewing me. To be honest, the hardest part of the whole thing was not looking at the tits of the girls interviewing me. They were all so hot, I had to keep telling myself “don’t look at their tits”. LOL. Anyways, my take on networking is this. Talk to everyone. It’s all about small talk and having a genuine interest in other people. If you just want a job but have no interest in the other person, you might get some love if you have the skill set they need. However, if you show interest in the person and passion for what they do, they will want to help you. I’m a case study in good networking. Why? I know it’s the only way I’m going get ahead. I went to a state school ranked 98th in the nation by US News (i.e. none of the places I want to work recruit from my alumni), my gpa is a meager 3.0, and I don’t have any uncles or aunts who are executives. Therefore, getting off my ass and engaging people is the only way I could have a shot at getting into top firms. Through just talking to people I interned at arguably the top boutique IB in the country, the top AM firm in LA, and ended up where I am today. Not bad for a kid with no connections prior. Have a can do attitude, be resourcful (use your imagination), learn etiquette and develop a gift for gab. Thats it in a nutshell. Of course have to know your sh!t too, but were talking about pure networking here.
Respect, Gouman. Respect
Gouman Wrote: > Through just talking to people I interned at > arguably the top boutique IB in the country, the > top AM firm in LA, and ended up where I am today. > Not bad for a kid with no connections prior. What’s the top asset management firm in LA?
Creative Artists Agency maybe? Definitely not Bill Gross’s firm… poor performance … And not that private retail behemoth either… and not the b*tch’s firm. It’s a toss up between the other two.
It depends on who you ask. However you will generally only hear three names mentioned in the context of “top”. 1. Western Asset Managment (strictly FI shop, a subsidiary of Legg) 2. Trust Company of the West (Does everything, aka TCW) 3.) Capital Group (Mutual fund giant)